China's Latest Global Push:
Oil-Field Services

China aims to become a global powerhouse in auto making, aerospace and other sophisticated industries. Its latest push: the lucrative business of providing equipment and know-how in the oil patch.

Long confined to the domestic market by subpar technology and a lack of experience, China's oil-field-service companies are gaining toeholds from Russia to Texas. Executives with two of the largest say they plan to triple the portion of their revenue earned outside China within the next few years. The oil-field-service units of...